Věra Valentová

* 1929

  • “The Germans arrived, they hung out flags, the Czech teachers disappeared somewhere. There were all kinds of German days there. They had a Workers’ House in Břeclav. And we had to march with them. For example, there were Germans there from Lednice who’d settled the place. They had white socks, hats, and shirts. I can’t even remember what it all looked like. So we had to [sing - ed.] Die Fahne hoch. We had to keep our hand raised. It was like that under Russia as well, there were all those people there who profited from it. Well, we children took it hard, really hard.”

  • “We weren’t allowed there, we had to have a permit. We couldn’t even go to Podivín, not anywhere. But I did manage to get to Brno after all... One of my friends was getting married in Brno. Květa wanted us to go see Julča, but how? No one was allowed on the station in Břeclav. You could only get there by walking through one corridor. It was guarded. You couldn’t. You just couldn’t enter the Protectorate without a permit. And then one married couple came along, Germans. And Květa and I joined them. And the German said: ‘These are my children.’ Well, we were flabbergasted. So we stepped on up. We sat down in the same compartment as they did, and we got off in Brno. So that’s how we entered the Protectorate the one and only time.”

  • “We had a dog named Bobin, but when I wanted to go to the Dyje [Thaya River - trans.]... I couldn’t get him there to wash him. At the time I was doing something in the garden, when I heard: ‘Věra.’ Dad couldn’t even speak, he was famished, thirsty. I pricked up my ears, so did the dog. I opened the gate. The dog stood up, looked across to the other side of the river, and with no thought... no thought of the water, he recognised Dad, he swam across the water, leapt at him. I quickly grabbed an oar from the neighbour, I rowed to Dad... That was our reunion... And the dog, that really moved me... Like I said, he was afraid of the water, but this was Dad, so he wasn’t afraid, he jumped at him, licked him all over. He hadn’t forgotten him... So that was our reunion.”

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    Brno, 03.05.2017

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It’s important to always get up and carry on

Věra Valentová, 1946
Věra Valentová, 1946
photo: archiv pamětníka

Věra Valentová, née Pořízková, was born on 30 July 1929 in the village of Poštorná near Břeclav. Whe she was fourteen, Věra looked after the children of a Czech family that declared itself German in 1939, at the beginning of the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. Věra’s father was assigned to forced labour and became a part of the Todt Organisation, which built a network of railway lines stretching deep into the territory of the Soviet Union. Her father’s diary tells of the terrible conditions there. Věra’s two sisters were also assigned to forced labour during World War II. One of them worked at a bomb and ammunition factory near Vienna. When she deliberately refused to return from a holiday leave, she was arrested by the Gestapo and threatened with work in the roughest shifts of the factory, where people regularly died. With the arrival of the Nazis, Poštorná became a part of the German Reich. The family could only enter the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia with a permit. They lived near Boří (Pine) Forest. During World War II, a concentration camp was located nearby, adjoined by the Muna Ammunition Factory. The workers were both forced labourers and POWs from Belgium, France, and Serbia. Poštorná was severly damaged by bombing at the end of the war. In the 1970s Věra and her husband found themselves under the scrutiny of State Security. Her husband’s brother had emigrated, and his relatives were thus placed under pressure from the Communist regime. As of 2017 the witness lives in Brno. She has a daughter and a grandson.